Armored Core 4:  Without Honor
by Greylith
Summary: ORCA has succeeded in executing the Closed Plan.  Now space lies before man as a canvas of stars.   OC heavy- occurs approximately twenty years after AC4A  R&R would be splendid!


Prologue

Arteria Cranium's darkness was disturbed by the blue glow of Reiterpallasch's head-piece. Quietly, anxiously, Wynne D. Fanchon waits for the last remaining member of ORCA. A man she once regarded as an ally… A friend. _ You… How could you? After all we've fought for… You just throw it all away? You simply accept Thermidor's lies? The lies of ORCA? Of terrorists? Of murderers? _Her mind reeled with the furious thoughts of his betrayal. Wynne's palms grew sweaty on the controls as the anticipation grew. A final battle for the fate of the Cradles with the most powerful Next, and most skilled Lynx in the known world. Fury turned to fear, and fear quickly hardened into resolution. She knew not whether she had the capability to win, but it didn't matter. There was no if, no could or could not in her mind. She would win. She had to win.

Her thoughts were soon broken by the low whir of distant boosters. He was coming. The whir quickly fired into a great burst of power as the sound of the Black Glint's incredible over-boost activated. Within moments the great machine stood before her, cutting power to his boosters as soon as she was in sight. "Wynne…" He began, standing only a few kilometers away from her. "I should have known you would be the last bastion of the Cradles' defense. Interior Union's top pilot… It's greatest killing machine."

A growl rumbled from Wynne's throat at the smug insult . "How dare you call me the murderer. You, the harbinger of death for all mankind… You would seek to end hundreds of millions of lives, and you call _me _the killing machine?"

"Oh Wynne… Your temper was never an attractive quirk." The insults kept coming from his smug tone. In truth, he also dreaded the final confrontation, and used petty insult as a means to psychologically handicap Wynne. Frustration leads to sloppy performance, and this is what he was counting on for the upcoming battle.

"Quiet, Grey. I know what you're doing, and it isn't going to work. I'm stronger than your words." Wynne easily saw through the strategy, unfortunately not as immediately as she should have. "Now isn't the time for words… It's the time for battle. Prepare yourself."

A smirk spread across Grey's lips, wasting no more breath.

With a quick dash forward, Grey unleashes his purple Moonlight blade, aiming to decapitate Reiterpallasch, and end the battle quickly. However, Wynne was no greenhorn, and instinctually quick-boosted to the right, evading the attack before launching herself upward. The veteran Lynx countered her ex-comrade's melee attack with a barrage of laser shots from her laser cannon, its light raining down like a torrential downpour.

But no one reaches rank one by being unable to avoid a senseless flurry of shots, and Grey easily does so by quick-boosting forward, then to the side, repeating the pattern so as not to break his momentum. Within moments Grey positions himself directly under Reiterpallasch, using the incredible opportunity to launch a blast from his back-mounted grenade launcher.

Anticipating this tactic, Wynne deftly evaded backward, watching on her monitor as the grenade streaked by and exploded against the ceiling above. _The son of a bitch knew I would be here… _She thought to herself as she counter-attacked with a second blast from her laser cannon. _He knows Reiterpallasch can't defend well against that grenade launcher… I have to keep moving. _With that in mind Wynne began her attack, boosting in toward the Black Glint, and quick-boosting to the side just as he slashed forward again with the Moonlight blade. With this opening Wynne countered with her own laser blade, merely to miss as Grey tore Black Glint to the side in automatic response to his previously failed attack.

It was time to up the pressure, as Grey finally utilized his small, yet high-powered machine gun to pressure Reiterpallasch into evading. With its light Latona frame, Reiterpallasch was designed to evade heavy hits, and encircle an enemy. However, she faired poorly against a foe that could match her speed while simultaneously damaging her. Grey knew Wynne's strategy inside out, and grinned as she made her first fatal mistake.

Unable to maneuver around the relentless assault grounded, Wynne blasted into the air again to provide herself with a three-dimensional evasion zone. However, this was part of Grey's plan from the beginning, and as she drained her energy by constantly evading, the Black Glint launched a perfectly-timed grenade once her reserves were depleted. With her Primal Armor whittled down by the constant barrage of machine gun fire, Reiterpallasch stood no chance against a direct hit from Black Glint's grenade. The explosion took off the light Next's arm, destroying her precious laser cannon while simultaneously knocking her out of the air. Not one to waste such an opportunity, Grey swooped in with his Moonlight blade to finish the battle. Wynne's last, hasty defense was to desperately block with her remaining arm, which was easily sliced in half by the super-heated weapon. Yet Grey was still not finished. He knew Wynne had the spirit of a warrior, and so continued his assault. With a cold fury, he slashed away both her back-mounted weapons, and made a sweeping slash at the base of her core, severing the connection between core and legs. A great clang sounded throughout the Arteria as Reiterpallasch fell to pieces at the feet of the Black Glint.

Sparks flew from the severed wires, the crackling sounding throughout the Arteria as both enormous mechs remain silent. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, the sound of generators powering down emitted from both Reiterpallasch and Black Glint. Air hissed free as pneumatic systems opened the cockpit doors, and both pilots exit their mechs. Grey hopped down from Black Glint, a graceful panther nimbly jumping from piece to piece, while Wynne is forced to crawl from her wreckage. Blood trickled down from a cut on her forehead, an injury sustained during her crash to the ground.

With a sympathetic smile Grey strolled over to where Wynne laid, kneeling over her to gently pull away her helmet, and toss it to the side. A cascade of golden blonde hair fell about her shoulders, covering eyes that shed tears of an even mix of pain, sadness, and fury. Grey also pulled his helmet away, letting his hazelnut brown hair loose to curtain his bearded face. With a gentle hand he pulled away Wynne's hair to see her bite her lip in pain as she tried to move her arm to stop him. Softly, he pushed her arm back to her side, silently asking her not to fight any longer. "Your arm is probably broken, and your forehead is bleeding. Can you walk?" He asked as his eyes wandered over her legs to search for any apparent sign of injury.

"I think I sprained my ankle… I should be fine." Wynne's warrior spirit refused to die down, but her pain was obvious.

"Come here…" With a bit of effort Grey helped Wynne rise to her feet, swinging her good arm over his shoulder as he took her over to where the door connecting the Arteria to the central hub waited.

Wynne winced with a slight bit of pain as she accidentally moved her broken arm. "Grey… What are you… I just-"

Her sentenced was interrupted as Grey silently hushed her. "I'll explain once we reach the computer."

The long walk down the hallway lit by streaks of glowing circuitry and light was filled with silence. Neither warrior wished to speak, as both had minds filled with thoughts of what was to come. Grey had won. His vision, and that of Maximillion Thermidor, of ORCA, would be fulfilled. It was a grim business, but for the future of humanity, it had to be done.

A pair of automatic sliding doors opened before the two as they approached. Inside was a massive holographic monitor, displayed by a tower that seemed to be the central hub of the circuitry that lined the complex. At its base was a console, toward which Grey and Wynne walked.

"It's incredible…" Wynne's blue eyes wandered the complex, allowing her to forget most of her pain as it was overcome by awe.

Grey's smile faded as she looked around, making his way to the central console. Once there, he lay Wynne against the console before activating the orange holographic keyboard and miniature monitor.

"So Grey…" Wynne muttered once the awe had left her. "How are you going to do it? How are you going to destroy the Arteria?"

Grey's hand lowered to his belt to flip open a small pouch, from which he pulled a micro blu-ray drive. "Before Malzel died at Big Box, he designed a worm that will eat away the firewalls and other security systems protecting the vital systems for the Arteria's control. Once those are gone it'll be almost effortless to hack in to the system and initiate an emergency system shut-down." With a finger he tapped the tray eject and inserted his drive. "Once the Arteria is brought offline, the cradles will fall. Thousands of people will die… But humanity as a whole will finally be forced to deal with the undeniable state the earth is in."

"So what, Grey? Are you just some psychotic green-party member? Are you actually trying to save this dead planet?"

Grey simply scoffed at the fool notion. "Of course not. This planet has been dead for decades, since even before the National Dismantlement War." Once the monitor brought up the loading bar for the worm, Grey finally returned his eyes to Wynne. "The goal was never to bring humanity down, Wynne. It was to show them that they must soar ever higher."

Wynne's bright blue eyes narrowed with confusion. Then suddenly, she remembered. The anti-satellite cannons that GA had built and abondoned countless years ago. "Wait… You aren't shutting down the Arteria, are you? You're redirecting its power from the Cradles to GA's anti-satellite cannons!"

Grey simply smiled as she finally figured out the true objective of the Closed Plan. "That's correct. I suppose there's no more use in lying to you now that there's nothing you can do to stop me… Us." He moved his head to check on the progress of Malzel's worm. "Eighty percent complete…" His attention was once more returned to Wynne, his warm smile upon his lips. "In a few minutes I shall reactivate your former employer's old cannons, and destroy the binds that surround this planet. Once they are gone, humanity will be free to explore the next frontier."

"Outer space…" Wynne closed her eyes as she began to process all this information. _So this… This was ORCA's mission. They wanted us to be able to explore space, to give humanity a true future… But why did it have to be like this? Did so many have to die to achieve this goal?_

"Done." The worm had finished its work in the system, and now Grey had complete control over the Arteria. With the deft fingers of a pro Lynx, Grey began to reroute the power supply from the Cradles to the cannons. "The phoenix must fall so that it may once more rise from the ashes. This is the terrible truth Wynne, but in reality, the lesser of two evils." He could still see the confusion, the hurt, that lurked beneath his rival's eyes. "Believe me, no one wishes this could be different more than I. This is just the world we are a part of. This is what we have to accept." With a gentle hand Grey reached down to lift Wynne to her feet once more, slinging her good arm over his shoulder. "My work here is finished. I'll arrange for a transport shuttle to come pick you up." Wynne's eyes drifted up to Grey's face as he spoke, as her mouth no longer knew what words to utter. "They'll take you back to Interior Union's main headquarters, wherever it may have landed." After a short while, Grey and Wynne arrived at their battle-ground, where a short shuttle with two large, propeller wings awaited them. Wynne's brows furrowed in confusion, as Grey had made no call for evacuation. Almost as if reading her mind, Grey answered, "once the worm was finished uploading, it sent a wireless signal to the ORCA base, requesting my evac. The signal was mainly a fail-safe, just in case whatever opposition I encountered disabled Black Glint during battle." Wynne simply huffed, knowing she was unable to do any damage at all during their battle.

Once they reached the shuttle, men in ordinary street clothing helped Wynne aboard. Grey addressed a fellow bearded man with graying hair, "take her back to Interior Union. Once that's done, return to head-quarters. There's much to be done, and we'll need all hands on deck." The bearded man saluted the new leader of ORCA, and assisted Wynne aboard the shuttle.

As Wynne sat, she looked back at Grey who stood there with his arms crossed, triumphant in this great war. "Grey… Will I ever see you again?"

His eyes slowly closed as he answered her with a shake of his head.

With that the propellers fired up, and the shuttle began to lift up, off the ground. Wynne gazed down at the man she once called friend as he turned around and walked back to the Black Glint. With an exasperated sigh, and lonely tear rolling down her cheek, she allowed the door of the shuttle to be shut while they took off. As the aircraft flew off, over the rolling oceans that surrounded Arteria Cranium, Wynne could only stare out the window as she laid a hand upon her stomach. _So… What happens now?_


End file.
